ALBANY — The state is cutting businesses’ workers’ compensation insurance costs for the first time in four years.

Gov. Cuomo announced the 1.2 percent cut in premium rates yesterday — two months after an advisory board of insurance carriers had urged an increase of as much as 11.5 percent.

“To create jobs and get our state’s economy back on track, it is essential that New York’s businesses remain in a competitive position,” Cuomo said.

The governor also gave credit for the rate cut to reforms in the system to compensate injured workers approved in 2007 by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer.